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July could be your best genealogy month ever if you enter our new sweepstakes. You might win $250 worth of how-to genealogy books from Family Tree Books—and all you have to do is fill out the entry form on FamilyTreeMagazine.com. Enter up to once per day, as many days as you want until the July 31 deadline. Good luck!

As you read about a new effort to keep public records open for genealogical research (see below), think about threats to records in your state. It takes a monumental effort to keep track of impending records restrictions across the country—that's why we've created a new Public Records Alert section of our Forum. It's your tool for spreading the word about records access in your area and letting fellow researchers know how they can help.

Thanks for reading!

—Diane Haddad, Newsletter Editor
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com

P.S. Make sure you don't miss a single issue of your E-mail Update! Add our address (familytree-newsletter@fwpubs.com) to your e-mail-address book—your software will recognize the Update as an e-mail you want to read.
 

• NYG&B Controversy: Members Decry Voting Proposal
• Keeping Public Records Open
• Your Ideas for Getting Relatives to Share Family Photos
• From the Forum: Trying New Software and Cemetery Safety
• Tip of the Week: You Still Can Access Many Defunct Web Sites
• Worthwhile Web Sites
• Photo Detective: British Schoolboy Photos (or, the Bluecoats are Coming!)
• FamilyTreeMagazine.com Events Calendar
• Advertiser Special Offers

NYG&B Controversy: Members Decry Voting Proposal
A simmering dispute within the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society (NYG&B) has risen to a boil as the society's 5,000 members consider a proposal from the Board of Directors to divest themselves of voting privileges.

Read what's behind the debate on the Genealogy Insider blog at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/insider/NYGB+Controversy
+Members+Decry+Voting+Proposal.aspx

Keeping Public Records Open
Five genealogists have started the Keep Genealogical Records Open Workgroup (KGROW). Their goal is to educate government officials and the public about the truth behind identity theft- and terrorism-related efforts to close public records.

Read more about KGROW and see the December 2006 Family Tree Magazine special report on public records access on the Genealogy Insider Blog.

Also on the blog, learn about our new Public Records Alert Forum where genealogists can inform each other about impending threats to public records access.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/insider/
New+Group+Aims+To+Keep+Public+Records+Open.aspx

Your Ideas for Getting Relatives to Share Family Photos
Last week, we asked you to respond to a reader's appeal for help getting his family to share copies of ancestral photographs. Looks like we hit a nerve! Here's what some of you said; read more comments on the FamilyTreeMagazine.com Back Fence Forum.

I said that I would make a CD/DVD for each child, and this way, the pictures would last until eternity. I also offered to pay for the shipping.
—Kamaditz

One cousin volunteered to scan some pictures, took them and refused to return them. He also didn't provide scanned copies. Now we don't allow any pictures to leave, but are more than happy to scan them and provide scans to all.
—genealogysleuth

My mother-in-law had family pictures from the 1870s. She didn't want them photographed or scanned, as she was afraid I would do something to harm them. She went down for a nap and I took them to Copy Max. She passed away in December and the photos seem to have disappeared—I'm so glad I got copies!
—gensleuth

I made an appointment with distant relatives who had all these amazing photos. I showed up with my laptop and scanner. When they saw how I could actually improve the photos, they sent me home with a huge batch to scan, fix and burn onto a CD.
—irishgoose

Family Tree Maker 2008 Beta
Several newsletter readers have tried out the Family Tree Maker 2008 beta release. What can you expect in this new version of the popular software? Read their comments on the Genealogy Insider blog at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/
insider/Try+Family+Tree+Maker+2008+In+Beta.aspx and in the Forum at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?
tid=405&posts=4&start=1.

Safe Cemetery Sleuthing
In the Cemetery Central forum, danileem relates a personal safety scare-turned-coincidental graveyard meeting, then asks about others' similar experiences while doing cemetery research. Tell us what precautions you take when visiting ancestors' graves at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=410
&posts=1&mid=958#M958

You Still Can Access Many Defunct Web Sites
For sharing her secret for accessing defunct Internet sites, kmccain will receive a bonus international resources CD.

Web sites come and go, and then you get the dreaded "the page cannot be found" message. There's a better-than-even chance you can still find the page, however, using the Wayback Machine. Also known as the Internet Archive, this a storehouse of sites that've been indexed and stored. You can search for the offending URL and, if you're lucky, you'll get a list of dates when the page or site was last visited and links to take you to the archived version. Check it out at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

We recently recommended the following as Sites of the Week—one just might boost you over that brick wall in your research:

• Rudy's List of Archaic Medical Terms
• http://www.antiquusmorbus.com
• Look up old mechical terms from death certificates, hospital records and family correspondence—and don't be surprised if you develop a mild case of hypochondria.
  


• ThatsMyOldHouse.com
• http://www.thatsmyoldhouse.com
• This free networking site is a forum where registered users can share stories, photos and information about their old homes.
  

Here's more good online news! No more typing in URLs for the September 2007 Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Web Sites for genealogy. Now you can click through to all of this year's Best Web Sites from FamilyTreeMagazine.com. Just go to http://www.familytreemagazine.com/101sites/2007

British Schoolboy Uniforms
(or, the Bluecoats Are Coming!)
Where did these British students go to school? Well, expert photo historian Maureen A. Taylor knows where the photo wasn't taken.

How did she find out? Read more—and submit suggestions for where these boys went to school—on the Photo Detective blog. 

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photodetectiveblog.

If you have a family photo mystery for Taylor to solve, check out our Submission Guidelines at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/photohelp.htm.

Find upcoming genealogy and living history seminars—and publicize your group's events—in our online calendar. You must be registered with the FamilyTreeMagazine.com Forum to post.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forum/calendar/calendar-list.asp

Lineages, Professional Genealogists - We can trace your family's unique history and deepen your connection with your family's ancient past. www.lineages.com (800) 643-4303

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September 2007 Issue

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